Paul Bass Photos
Cavaliere, Coppola.
One “sickened” candidate vowed to succeed a “perk”-grabbing president who ran the union as a “private club.” That president in turn called the candidate a “criminal” and a “disgrace.”
Welcome to New Haven Slugfest 2011.
Alternatively known as: “Lou Cavaliere’s Last Hurrah.”
Or, to be precise: the election of a new president for New Haven’s restive police union, AFSCME Council 15 Local 530. It takes place from 6:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. Thursday at police headquarters.
It’s not just any election. Lou Cavaliere has run the union for 30 years. Now he’s stepping down.
Four different cops are running to take his place — with elbows flying, and with the colorful Cavaliere still very much a part of the campaign despite his retirement.
The candidates — Sgt. Anthony Zona and Officers Arpad Tolnay, Dave Coppola, and Mitchell Berger — running at a time of tension and transition for New Haven’s approximately 430-member force. Fresh faces are contending for other union board positions, too.
The new union president will face difficult negotiations with City Hall, which amid a budget crisis is seeking to boost how much officers contribute toward pensions and health care; to lower cost-of-living increases for retirees; and to require the typical cop to work 25 years, not 20, before retiring. (Last year’s average retiree was 48 years old and received a $74,400 annual pension.) Negotiations have stalled; the two sides may end up in arbitration. The contract runs out June 30.
The new president faces a younger rank and file demanding a tougher line against the city in negotiations to preserve benefits. A wave of retirements is expected in coming months; those who have filed to retire or expected to include Capt. Leo Bombalicki, Capt. Bryan Kearney, Cavaliere, and Officer William Hurley. Angered by the layoffs of 16 cops in February, 200 cops marched into the chief’s office, then through downtown streets to the mayor’s office. The cops also voted 246 – 21 to express “no confidence” in top police brass. So one issue in the campaign is how hard a line to take with City Hall, and who can take it. (Cavaliere, despite a penchant for combative public comments, said he stepped in down in part because some younger members have unrealistic views about negotiating strategy amid hard fiscal times for the city.)
Meanwhile, another, internal, issue has emerged: how should the police union run? That has turned out to be the more contentious question.
A “Private Club”?
Coppola, a 23-year veteran of the force and some years the top recipient of overtime work, has made that question the centerpiece of his campaign.
Coppola refused to comment for this article. But he expressed his views at length in a two-page campaign flyer posted on the bulletin board of the police department’s second-floor lounge.
It begins with a slogan: “Would it be nice to have a union president who didn’t receive perks?”
“Along with you, I’ve become increasingly sickened by the direction our union officers have taken us,” Coppola continued. “The outgoing president [Cavaliere] received a $200.00 per week stipend, month’s car payment, personal auto insurance, fuel reimbursement and an open credit card without the requirement that its actually being disclosed to the membership. If elected, I will abolish that practice.
“I pledge a thorough, regularly updated and transparent accounting of all Union funds, including dues, fundraising income, donations, expenses, fees and investments.”
Cavaliere read Coppola’s notice. Let’s just say he didn’t agree with the allegations.
“I can stand by any money that was spent by the union” when “a criminal [Coppola] starts to try impugn my reputation,” Cavaliere said in an interview.
Cavaliere said the union membership voted in 1997 to allow the president, whoever that is, to receive $400 month for a leased car and $200 a week for a stipend to compensate for the overtime work a cop sacrifices when taking the position. (A union president can’t serve as a supervisor because he might end up disciplining a cop he then might have to represent.) Cavaliere said he paid for his own car insurance and always accounted for every penny spent.
“He’s really intimating that there was a misuse of funds in the union,” Cavaliere said. He claimed that Coppola has a vendetta against him over a failed effort to restore his seniority rights years back when Coppola quit, then rejoined, the force.
And Cavaliere claimed that Coppola, in fact, is the one who can’t be trusted with money. He cited — and provided a copy of — a 2005 settlement agreement in which Coppola agreed to pay $300 to the city and serve a 15-day unpaid suspension after failing to account for money collected on an extra-duty job at the old Shaw’s supermarket. Cavaliere also provided a copy of a letter from State’s Attorney Michael Dearington in connection with that case. It read in part: “There is probably cause to believe that Officer Coppola requested and received in excess of two hundred dollars of unauthorized reimbursement.” (Dearington added that “criminal prosecution is not warranted” because of “the amount of money and sanctions available to your department.”)
At the time the Register’s William Kaempffer reported, “Coppola on at least 10 occasions took cash or checks written to cash from contractors, but never submitted the funds to the city. It is policy to turn over the money to the city, which takes an 8 percent administrative fee and withholds state and federal taxes. Coppola must repay the city $300 for the administrative fees. He also was accused of circumventing regulations by having contractors call him directly when they needed an officer, instead of going through the extra-duty office. One contractor told investigators that Coppola showed up at a building construction site and threatened to arrest someone if a drywall truck unloaded because their sidewalk permit had expired. Coppola then allegedly provided his cell phone number and said the contractor should call him directly when he needs an officer.”
“Dave Coppola is a disgrace. He’s an admitted thief. He should turn his gun and badge in,” Cavaliere said. “He doesn’t deserve to be a police officer when he admitted he stole money from the city. Dave is a hateful person and he spreads lies.”
Apprised of Cavaliere’s remarks, Coppola still refused to comment. He has a reputation in the department of not shrinking from a confrontation, no matter how powerful the person he’s facing; click here to read about one such instance.
Experience & Change
Thomas MacMillan File Photo
Zona at the Feb. 17 March on City Hall.
Lou Cavaliere’s not running in Thursday’s election. A longtime ally, Sgt. Anthony Zona, is. That has made for tricky navigating.
On the one hand, Zona, a 22-year veteran of the force, is stressing his experience to argue that he is best qualified to negotiate with the city and fight for members. (“Quite frankly, I’m the most connected guy to get things done.”) He has served on the local union’s executive board for eight years. (He’s the treasurer.) And he is president of the parent union, AFSCME Council 15; that council represents around 4,200 cops from 62 municipalities, including New Haven, Bridgeport and Waterbury. Zona made a point in an interview of paying tribute to Cavaliere’s long tenure and his commitment to the union. “Lou Cavaliere was a great teacher,” he said.
At the same time, Zona sought to claim a stake to the change vote, as well. (Click on the video at the top of the story to watch a fired-up speech about the mayor at the police protest.) “Louis is an old-time labor guy. You know how it is. You go in, you pound your fist, you tell them you’re going to do certain things, you go ahead and you do that,” Zona said. “There is a time and a place for that. … I’m going to do things a little differently. We’re going to get involved at the local level a little more, politically. We’re going to clean up our reputation. I’ll leave at that that.”
That hasn’t stopped the person considered a leading contender, Officer Tolnay, for taking aim at Zona’s ties to the old guard. Zona said he was miffed to see a letter from Tolnay posted in the men’s locker room alleging that he lied about lobbying at the state capital in favor of a pro-labor bill (to allow rank-and-file cops, like police brass, to transfer to new departments without earning new physical fitness certification). Zona said he did play a key role in drafting the proposal and that he also drafted a statement to be read at a legislative hearing; at the last minute he had to have a staffer read it at the hearing because he was busy with the anti-City Hall protests back home in New Haven. He also rejected a Tolnay charge that he has been missing too many union meetings. “If I missed eight union meetings in eight years, that’s a lot,” he said.”
Meanwhile, Zona also fended off a charge by Coppola in his posted notice that the union shouldn’t belong to AFSCME Council 15, over which Zona presides. Coppola argued that the local should withdrawn and spend its “over $200,000” in annual dues instead on “two full-time lawyers and a secretary.”
“The new Union must operate as a business, not a private club, as it often does,” Coppola wrote.
Zona called the annual AFSCME dues money well spent. AFSCME has a full-time executive director, four staff attorneys, and two lobbyists, all of whom provide valuable expertise and other help in advancing the local’s cause, he said. He said withdrawing from AFSCME “would be a mistake, especially going into these contract negotiations and going into arbitration. AFSCME’s research department is great. Their actuarial department is great. They provide a lot of service at times like this that would cost the local thousands of dollars.”
Mayor Slayer
Officer Tolnay, who couldn’t be reached for comment, can stake the biggest anti-City Hall claim of any of the candidates: He sued the mayor and other city officials, and walked away with $1.5 million (before his lawyer got paid). The case stemmed from a 2002 incident in which Tolnay arrested two politically connected Fair Haven ministers on a church Sunday over a noise complaint. The police subsequently dropped the charges; the mayor apologized to the ministers. Tolnay sued after he was suspended and transferred, claiming retribution. He originally won $5 million before a judge reduced the jury award.
Tolnay maintained his anti-City Hall tone in a 2010 comment posted on an Independent story: “This city is and continues to be a Liviable City where despite the crime rate their is a sense of security..and NOT because of City Hall and the non-appreciation for our services but because we still have great cops who are dedicated to doing their service and protecting the people of this city despite the criticism of a “few” yet “chosen” residents of the city. Great Job on the part of the extra duty officers that chose to run to the location and apprehend a criminal at large.
“If your city and their administration wont appreciate your actions I certainly do and know that your fellow cops always do.”
In a campaign flyer posted at the police department, Tolnay, a member of the union’s executive board, spoke more generally about how he has always fought hard “in contract negotiations, as well as internal affairs and chief disciplinary meetings. I have always ensured that my actions on your behalf have been without prejudice and to the best of my ability.”
In his own flyer posted at the department, the fourth candidate, Officer Berger, stressed his experience as both a cop (first in Waterbury, then New Haven) and as a private attorney and state fraud investigator. (He didn’t return phone messages seeking comment and a photo for this article.)
“I have prepared, tried and argued cases in all Connecticut courts and have successfully represented and vigorously educated on behalf of thousands over the past thirty years,” he wrote.
“I will fight for you to stop any further layoffs and will work to ensure the preservation of our existing hard earned pension and medical benefits.”
As a young officer I wish Cavaliere was staying but he's not. So heres my take on this. Coppola is out, he does not care about any of us and is doing this for his own gain. Berger may be a Lawyer but he has never been on the street and doesn't know our needs and if he was a good lawyer why did he come to work here. Word is the city is going to force his retirement due to an injury a few years ago. I like Tolnay he is a nice guy but he has not been on the street much and he has also been out or work a lot. I am concerned about his union experience, the lawsuit he won and how the Mayor will treat him during negotiations. Sergeant Zona has a rough delivery at times but I have always known him to be very honest and fair and he is on the street with us. I also believe he is the most experienced union member we have right now and in these hard contract times thats what we need. Sarge you have my vote! I hope we all do the right thing, I have a lot of years left.